Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Ohio U players accused of gambling activities

Yesterday, OU's 20-year baseball coach sadly acknowledged that three of his players apparently did not heed his advice or OU and NCAA prohibitions against sports gambling....There is no evidence that the operation involved wagers on OU sports, the Bobcat baseball team or other student-athletes, officials said....The gambling involved professional sports, Lang said....Under NCAA rules, athletes who wager on their schools' teams are permanently ineligible. Those who bet on other collegiate or professional sports are banned for a year and lose that year of eligibility....Mark DeCoster, Brent DeCoster's father, said the charges are overblown. He said the case involves friends making "friendly" $10 or $20 wagers, including on a fantasy football league. His son will plead not guilty, he said.

Sounds to me like some guys who were just being stupid. The active players, in particular, though, surely were aware of the NCAA rules associated with this kind of thing...